Let’s remember when the Monorail caught on fire, on this day in 2004 (May 31)
This is the stuff of nightmares.
On May 31, 2004, 150 passengers are evacuated when a fire halts the Seattle Monorail’s “blue train.” The train, one of two four-car Alweg trains built for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, caught fire with 150 people aboard shortly after 5:20 p.m. as it departed from the Seattle Center Terminal. The train slowed to a stop on a banked curve just outside of the tunnel formed by the Experience Music Project (EMP) building on 5th Avenue. Witnesses said flames shot out six to eight feet from the rear of the train.
The south-bound monorail was carrying passengers away from the last day of the Northwest Folklife Festival, an event which drew approximately 125,000 visitors during Memorial Day weekend at the Seattle Center. As the fire started, passengers reported hearing a loud pop, the lights went out, and smoke began filling the train. The driver told the frightened passengers to move towards the front of the car, and shortly thereafter, the train’s doors opened. As the fire department arrived at 5:27 p.m., black smoke billowed out of the train down 5th Avenue.
Passengers gathered by the open doors, trying to get some fresh air before being rescued. Fire fighters hoisted a ladder to an open door at the front of the train, and began evacuating passengers, and a driver from Seattle Monorail Services parked the red train alongside the blue train and began evacuating passengers onto it via metal planks connecting the two trains. The monorail was designed to be able to evacuate passengers from one train to another in emergencies.
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